As
far back as I can remember Christmas has always been an exciting time for
me. Both my mom and dad loved the
holiday, always decorated, and purchased far more gifts than they could afford. Christmas was my favorite holiday long before
I came to know the Lord.
My
earliest childhood memories of Christmas reach back to our home on Van Buren Street, when
I was 4 or 5. While the configurations
of that house changed frequently, I do believe I recall the Christmas
arrangement back then.
First,
my dad always put lights on the home. It
was a two story, white wood frame house with a front door facing the street and
a back door opening into our yard. The
entrance from the street was up a couple of concrete steps to a large concrete
porch which, in the summer, we often used as a fort or a place from which to
sell Kool-Ade. Above this porch was a
very large window which permitted the occupants of that second floor room a
view of the highway. While my sister
remembers living in that room for some time, my memories of my time in that
house place my brother and me in that room.
Concerning
decorations, my father would outline the house with large blue lights. It always looked great. Dad also had a large painted display which
featured Santa, his sleigh full of toys, and some reindeer, especially
Rudolph. Rudolph is pictured licking a
candy cane but the highlight of the display was Rudolph’s nose. It was actually a red light which would flash. I seem to recall him saying once that it was
painted by some high school student of his but I am not certain of that. This display ultimately ended up on the
garage door of the house on Hanft. While
on Van Buren, though, dad would attach this display outside the second floor
window making it impossible to see out of our bedroom during the month of
December. I never cared since I knew the
presence of that display meant Christmas was near!
I
do not recall if dad had his “Christmas Card” display when we lived in this
house. There are times when I think it
was in the front yard to the left of the house.
However, there are other times when I don’t remember it being there at
all. If the Card was there, it and the
Rudolph display were the only outdoor decorations I remember.
On
the inside, though, there were many decorations. We may have had some flashing red bells in
some of the windows and I am pretty certain we had some wreaths on the
doors. In our living room (the room you
entered from the porch), was our Christmas tree. Mom and dad always had a real tree until some
time after we moved to the Hanft home. I
remember going with dad to a tree lot at least once to get one. My dad would string the lights on it and my
mom would do the rest. She would cover
it with ornaments and then put on the icicles!
She would lay them on the branches very carefully and, by the time she
completed this effort, you could barely see the green of the tree at all!
Under
our Christmas tree was always a fun place to be. My dad would set up his “O” gauge model train
so it would travel around and around the tree.
I remember sitting for hours on the floor on many December days running
that train.
The
tree itself was fastened to the ceiling of the living room by wire and
hooks. Those hooks remained up all
year. I never asked why they wired the tree
that way but my sister says it was because (1) we always had a dog running
around and (2) my brother and I were always under the tree messing with the
train (or presents!). Maybe the dog (or
we) knocked it over once and once was enough for my dad!
Also
in the living room, sitting straight across from the tree, was a cardboard
fireplace. The home did not have a real
fireplace so my dad sat up one of those fake ones. I’m pretty certain we had more than one
though the years. Those things even came
with a fake log display which, when plugged in, would light up and give the
impression of a real fire burning (not a very good impression, though). We would hang our stockings on this fake
thing, at least for some of our Christmases.
Having dealt with some of these contraptions over the years as a father,
I’m sure my dad fastened it down in some way or added some type of weight to
offset the stuff which went into the stockings on Christmas Eve.
We
moved to the house on Hanft Street
when I was 10. Dad and mom had that home
built as they wanted it. There was a
real fireplace in this one which included a mantle! The old cardboard fireplace made the trek to
that house and I seem to recall it being in the hallway for a couple of years.
Of
course, decorating the Hanft house was much more involved than the Van Buren
house. My dad changed his lighting
scheme from all blue to multi-color lights (though, at first, they were large
bulbs). He ultimately installed
permanent hooks for the light strands to make it easier every year. Lights around the windows were also part of
the display.
It
seemed to me dad would add an outside decoration almost annually. Most of these he made in his workshop located
in our basement. I doubt I remember all
the things he put up outside at this season.
It was customary not to put up anything until the day after
Thanksgiving. But, on that day, rain or
shine, we put up virtually everything!
It made for a long day.
If
you stood at the corner of Hanft and Lela
Drive and look at the house, the huge nativity set
was to the left of the house. Some of
the figures were almost as tall as me.
Dad built everything in this display and had to repair some of it from
time to time. You always hoped there was
no wind when you were setting up the nativity.
Dad usually completed the display by throwing around some straw though I
do not know from whom he bought it.
Moving
to the right, you would see the Christmas Card and then a single display of
some Christmas Carolers. Near the top of
the chimney was hung a sign reading “Noel”.
The Rudolph display occupied the outside of the garage door. Some lights were strung up the flagpole so
that it gave the impression of being a tree.
Continuing to the right were the Snowmen family with papa snowman moving
his lantern up and down. There was also
a display of three train cars carrying gifts.
To the right of the house was a Santa display in which Santa and his
reindeer giving the impression of them taking off into the night. On the right side of the garage were the
elves in working poses, fastened directly to the garage. I’m certain I have forgotten some.
Mom’s
tree, as we called it, was in the double window corner of the living room
facing Hanft Street. This enabled everyone coming down the street
(or at school) to see the tree. This
tree began as a real one but, at some point, became artificial. Mom decorated it as she did the ones on Van
Buren.
The
mantle was transformed into a Christmas scene with lighted houses and other
figurines. Dad built a board which would
set on the mantle for this display. The
board also contained hooks on which the stockings were hung. A musical bell was hung from the ceiling
above the washer and dryer. Lighted
Christmas trees and other displays were in every room of the house. I believe there were lighted bells hanging on
the inside windows as well. On top of
the TV was a small candy dish in the shape of a stocking. Mom later put gumdrops into this dish which
Jeremy discovered one year when we were there.
I wish I could remember all the decorations on the inside.
One
of the special things we did each Christmas season was to make an evening trip
to downtown St. Louis. Back in the 50s, St. Louis had such stores as Famous-Barr and
Stix, Baer, and Fuller, stores which put Christmas displays in the first floor
windows. We would stand in front of
those windows for many minutes, along with most of Missouri, it seemed, and watch all the
action in those displays. Then we would
head for the department stores to see Santa and to shop.
It
was in Famous-Barr where we actually visited “The Claus”. Usually he was located in one of the upper
levels. So our family would ride the
escalators, which my brother and I loved, to that floor. Next you had to walk through the “Winter
Wonderland” display on that floor until, finally, you were face to face with
the man in the red suit! I sat on that
poor man’s lap for far too many years.
When I was real young, I wanted to do so as does every child. But, when I was older, I did so only because
that’s what mom wanted. It was a bit
embarrassing when kid was bigger than Kringle!
My
parents would then turn my brother and me free to roam the store. They would go off to shop and we would head
for the escalators. We would ride them all
the way to the top and then all the way back to the bottom. I think there were times we even played “Hide
and Seek” on those things. I must admit
I never enjoyed going shopping with my parents EXCEPT on the Christmas trip to St. Louis. It was always fun.
Our
Christmas celebrations were ALWAYS on Christmas morning. My parents would put us in the car on
Christmas Eve and we would drive around the town looking at Christmas
lights. Most of that ride, though, I was
thinking of all the excitement awaiting us the next morning! Once we returned
home, we would go upstairs to our room and try to go to sleep. That was next to impossible. There were Christmas Eve evenings which were
spent by my brother and me in lengthy discussions about what Santa would bring. There would be moments during these
discussions when we thought we heard Santa on our roof!
I
believe both my brother and I would ultimately fall asleep. But we would also awaken very early (5 a.m.
or so). We did not go downstairs without
mom and dad. But when the signal was
finally given, we would race downstairs to enjoy all that Santa had left. I don’t remember much organization involved
when it came to the gifts. Those gifts
which came from Santa were already open and on display when we arrived on the
scene. We could begin playing with those
immediately. We would also get into our
stockings at any time. Furthermore,
Santa would leave an abundance of candy canes on our tree and I remember
enjoying one of those before breakfast on some Christmas mornings. Sometime later we would have the gift hand
out and the paper would fly. I could be
wrong but I do not recall anyone waiting to watch one of us open a gift. I think it was a “free for all” once the
gifts were distributed.
We
would play with our toys all Christmas day.
I never wanted to stop and eat which was unusual for me to say the
least. There were times when I remember
falling asleep on the floor for a while but, once awake, the playing would
resume.
At
some point during the day, our cousins, the Pitchfords, would arrive. While we enjoyed having other kids to play
with, we learned early on to “put away” some of our special Christmas gifts
before they arrived. If one failed to do
so, one might find that gift somewhat destroyed by the end of the day!
As
I said earlier, my parents always gave me far too much. I would usually get almost everything I asked
for plus some items I never expected.
Over the years, though, there were certain Christmas gifts which stood
out. To be honest, I don’t recall
receiving ANY books on Christmas until I was 14. Anyway, here are some of the ones I still
remember:
1. My table hockey game which used the rods to
control players and shoot. The year I
got that gift (it was at the Hanft house), we played it all day. I played it with Keith. I played it with my cousins. I played it with my uncle. Without question, it was the greatest gift I
ever received as a child.
2. My Disneyland
play set (also a Hanft gift). I am
pretty sure I received this gift for Christmas 1961. The summer before was our first summer spent
in California. As part of that trip, we made our first visit
to Disneyland (which, at the time, was only 6
years or so old). It was so much
fun. Some company marketed a Disneyland play set that year. It consisted of plastic models of some of the
sites at the park, some of the major rides, and some of the Disney
characters. I believe it contained the
Castle, the Matterhorn, the jungle cruise, a
space ride, and so on. It was fun
setting it up, moving things around, and creating your own park.
3. The Alamo. This play set featured a medal building with
a drawing resembling the front of the Alamo. There were plastic walls you could build
around it plus many plastic soldiers fighting for Texas as well as Mexicans. If I recall correctly, there were also some
small cannons which would launch small plastic balls.
4. My Roy Rogers cowboy outfit. I was only 4 ½ on the Christmas that I
received this gift, but I do remember getting it. At that time I was a big fan of Roy Rogers
who had his own television show. I was
also quite interested in cowboys.
Needless to say, getting a hat, boots, guns (with holster), and other
items for Christmas was terrific!
5. A Drive-In Theater. This small plastic toy was arranged in the
form of a drive-in movie theater. It had
a removable screen at one end and a “concession stand” at the other. Between the two were “parking stalls” with
“speaker poles”. A couple of toy cars
were included. There was also a board
announcing the double feature (you had a pair of double features from which to
select) was playing that day. What was
fun about this was each of those listed “films” were actually a 6-8 frame film
slide which you place through the concession stand and projected on the movie
screen.
6. Bell’s
telephone. This was a model of Alexander
Graham Bell’s telephone which required assembly. However, once you got it together, it would
actually work.
7. Chess Books.
I joined the high school chess club my senior year and was absolutely
horrible. I knew how to move my pieces
but nothing about chess strategy. My
father bought me some books on chess openings and gave those to me on Christmas
1964. I devoured those books over
Christmas break and they radically changed my play. By the end of my freshman year, I was #2 in
school and ultimately was the school chess champion for 3 years.
8. Radium.
Yes, radium. I liked this gift
only because of its uniqueness. It was
actually some type of experiment in radioactivity which I think dad bought from
some science company. As far as I
remember, I never actually performed an experiment because I could never quite
figure it out. But part of the package
was this small container (was it lead lined?).
Attached to the underside of the lid was a needle like object. At the tip of that needle was a small amount
of radium. I loved looking at that
radium and showing it to friends when
they came over. I wonder if I poisoned
myself or others doing so? I wonder what
ever happened to that kit? I use to keep
it under the basement steps in the house on Hanft Street.
I
know there were many other gifts I enjoyed receiving but those are the ones
that come to my mind when I think back on my childhood Christmases.
1960's Disneyland Playset by Sears and Roebuck
WALT DISNEY'S DAVY CROCKETT ALAMO TIN LITHO FORT SET
BY MARX 49 PIECES
Remco
Movieland Drive-in Theater
Chess
Books by I. A. Horowitz
